I gathered from him that she was buried by the parish in the
usual way. But I assure you the man's account of everything that
occurred was so bewildered and so incoherent that I could really make
nothing out of him. What is his creed? Is it Swedenborgianism? He
seems to think that the model he has lost is a spirit (or spiritual
body, to use his own jargon) sent to him by the artistic-minded
spirits for entirely artistic purposes, but snatched from him now by
the mean jealousy of the same spirit-world.' 'But what did he say
about her burial?' 'Well, he seems not to have ignored so completely
the mundane question of burying this spiritual body as his creed
would have warranted, for he gave the mother money to bury it. The
mother, however, seems to have spent the money in gin and to have
left the duty of burying the spiritual body to the parish, who make
short work of all bodies; and, of course, by the parish she was
buried, you may rest assured of that, though the artist seems to
think that she was simply translated to heaven like Elijah.
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